Action for Children reveals in its latest report that visits to its Parent Talk service - which offers advice on parenting, parental conflict and relationship issues - have increased steadily over the past three years, with 470,000 parents and carers accessing the service last year.
Parent Talk offers support to parents and carers, including one-to-one chats with experienced parenting coaches and access to online articles.
An article entitled ‘Coparenting with a controlling ex-partner’ article was the most visited on the site in 2023/24, with more than 46,000 views. This was followed by another article called ‘How can I cope with not seeing my child after a separation’ at almost 18,000 views.
The report highlighted that parents accessing the site often reported having high levels of stress and low wellbeing, and were looking for help with co-parenting and navigating family support services.
Paul Carberry, chief executive at Action for Children, said: “We know from our work supporting hundreds of thousands of children and families across the UK that good parenting and stable relationships matter. They can help protect children and give them the foundations they need to thrive.
“It’s vital we support parents who are struggling to manage conflict or those facing abuse from an ex-partner. Early help services - online like Parent Talk, and Family Hubs - are a great way to do that. They support families by addressing issues as soon as possible. This can reduce stress, stop problems from escalating and ultimately limit the impact on the children involved. Our report shows parental conflict is a growing issue that urgently needs the new government’s attention.”
There was a 20% decrease over the past year in the number of parents viewing articles related to additional needs and disabilities, and mental health and wellbeing.
The charity is calling for the government to strengthen early help services by ensuring all parents can access universal family support, including digitally, and by investing in targeted support.
It also wants to see greater integrated services so all families know where to go to access help, and to ensure communities have specialist provision in local areas.
